Hill youths appear for cop exam

BIRESWAR BANERJEE

Siliguri, Aug. 18: More than 3,800 youths from the hills appeared for the written exam conducted by the West Bengal Police Recruitment Board to recruit sub-inspectors today.

The indefinite strike called by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha in the hills from August 3 was relaxed for four days from August 15 and today was the last day of the relaxation. This prompted youths from the hills to turn up in large numbers for the exam.

The state police recruitment board had decided to shift the hill centres to Siliguri after the strike was called by the Morcha. The Delhi Public School in Dagapur and Margaret School in Pradhannagar here were selected as the new venues for the 3,895 candidates from the three hill sub-divisions of Darjeeling district.

“The exam went off well and around 90 per cent of the candidates from the hills appeared for the test,” said O.G. Pal, the deputy commissioner of Siliguri metropolitan police

“Along with other inconveniences caused by the indefinite strike in the hills such as food shortage, it has also affected the careers of job aspirants across the hills,” said Ramesh Ghatani (name changed) from Mirik, who came for the exam.

On August 4, the second day of the indefinite strike, only 750 of 2,600 candidates appeared for the exam conducted by the state public service commission in the hills. Similarly, on August 11, out of 456 candidates supposed to sit for the NDA exam in Gangtok, 214 appeared. Most could not come for lack of transport.